


Unravel At The Seams

by Sorelion (Miakiii)



Series: In Media Res [8]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Canon Compliant, Grief/Mourning, Hallucinations, M/M, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), unhealthy coping mechanism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-14
Updated: 2019-08-14
Packaged: 2020-08-23 07:56:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20239390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miakiii/pseuds/Sorelion
Summary: Two months later and Stephen Strange is still reeling from the events that he orchestrated from behind the scenes.





	Unravel At The Seams

**Author's Note:**

> Wow. This is a new kind of angst for me rofl. But yeah, I absolutely LOVE [this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKcEhbeT5VE) from The Hush Sound asdfgh And like looking at the lyrics, it’s so very much perfect for this situation jhsdfkghl Anyway, it’s 1 am when I wrote this so please be wary of obvious mistakes and unbeta’d thing jskdjfgk

__ **"I moved in the dark  
The room calm and cold  
The quiet hollow"**

* * *

The Sanctum was quiet in the dead of the night, a calm and unsettling silence that Stephen preferred. To him, the darkness and stillness felt like the world had stopped moving, that it had not moved on.

It had been two months since Thanos' demise. While it had left a deep impact in the world, as all things with time, everyone slowly moved on. For Stephen's case, it was a bit of a toss up. His body follows along, like a puppet dancing on the strings of its master. He acts like his usual stoic self, an unflappable Master of Mystic Arts and future prospective Sorcerer Supreme that had the guts and will to gamble away half of the universe for a single unstable chance to win.

His mind and soul, however, are far from ready to move on. Fourteen million, six hundred and five time lines are etched onto his very being. A normal person would have already gone crazy from such a number.

However, ordinary people didn't have his amazing ability to compartmentalize each timeline with cold defiance.

"Stephen?"

Plus, they don't have _him_.

Tony Stark stood sluggishly from the archway, the glow of his arc reactor lights up part of his exhausted face. The genius rubs his eyes as he makes his way towards his brooding boyfriend. Stephen sighs in resignation as he lets the sleepy billionaire into his arms and nuzzle his neck.

"Why aren't you in bed?"

"Couldn't sleep. It's fine, you go on ahead."

"Can't sleep without you..." Tony's muffled complains made the sorcerer smile in the dark, as he lets his hand go over the mess of brown hair earning a happy moan in response. Stephen lets his hand down replacing it with his lips instead. He feels a content sigh released from his left shoulder.

"Come on, Stephie, sleep with me. It's almost four and I have a meeting tomorrow."

"That's a first. You and sleep?"

"Right? And isn't that saying something if **I** ask you to sleep." Whiskey eyes tinted by arc reactor blue stared at his own ocean blue ones. There was something soft and calm about Tony's face despite the years being ruthless to his body. Maybe it's just his love for the mechanic blinding him. Regardless, Stephen doesn't care and just decides that he loves that look Tony gives him.

That's what finally melts his resolve of watching over the calm night.

"Okay. Stay with me?"

_"Always."_

They step back into his master bedroom and quietly curl up against one another. In his drifting and unhealed mind, Stephen prays for the morning to never come.

Despite his prayers, it always does.

He wakes up alone in his bed, the bright sun shining through the blinds.

So Stephen once again lets his mind, heart, and soul mourn and stand still, lets his body move on but never allows anything else to be touched by time's moving hand.

He greets Wong stoically, as he heads down for breakfast. The other sorcerer gives him a look but Stephen ignores it, as usual.

"Stephen... You were up again last night."

"Yeah. Couldn't sleep."

"Are you--"

"Tony left this morning."

Silence. Stephen sees the pity and resignation in Wong's eyes and at that moment, he knew he screwed up.

"I--No, ignore that--"

"Stephen, are you still?"

"I said ignore that, Wong--"

"Listen, you have to let it go--"

"Wong, _I said drop it already--_"

"Your hallucinations aren't getting better--"

_"I'm warning you--"_

**"Stephen, you need to let him go. He's gone."**

There was a crash of a plate being thrown from the table, as Stephen stands up in rage and despair at the truth of Wong's words. Wong simply shook his head and flips his hand to clean out the broken mess. He stares impassively at the grieving man, letting him finally come to terms with his loss and pain

"He's..." The anger slowly deflates with Wong's continuous unimpressed look. He sits down in defeat, despair now slowly overcoming his entire sense of self.

"You have to accept it, Stephen. You have to wake up."

_Tick_

"Don't waste the future he gave us, you, just to relieve a memory of a timeline that has long passed."

_Tock_

"If you had any amount of _love_ for that man, then be happy and start moving forward."

Stephen _breaks._

He lets himself cry out and rage at the unfairness of the universe. He bitterly threw harsh words at his other companion and fought the Cloak from trying to keep his hands unharmed. His throat cracks and hitches in all the wrong places. All through it, Wong stood by like a stable pillar of support, as he watches over his friend finally beginning his step forward.

Time finally reached his mind, heart, and soul.

* * *

**** _"_**I am such a haunted soul**  
** Your ghost has gone**  
** The bed is so cold...**

** _The light, it slipped through the window  
The morning ripped you away, oh..."_ **


End file.
